tampered | closed: motives and with-actions can within

closed: motives and with-actions can within

When: Boxing Day eveningish. Right after the best display of literal self-loathing any curse has yet been able to produce.
Rating: S for Scolding, with an occasional pSH for post-Scolding Hug.
Characters: The Doctor (with the hair)

am_i_being_rude and Rose Tyler

iam_thebadwolf
Summary: Ten ran into the kitchen to get ice for Rose's face and didn't come back.
Log:

Jumping on the excuse to leave the room, he'd all but bolted into the kitchen entirely under the presumption that he was really going to get some ice and then go back out there. A few minutes later now, and all he had was some melting ice in a bit of square cloth he couldn't identify as either a dishrag or a washcloth, supposing there even was a difference. The entire sequence of events was still playing out repeatedly in his mind, mostly out of sheer disbelief, as though going back through it enough would show him the point where it didn't actually happen. And it wasn't really so much just this single incident. Things had been building to a head like this for a while now, and now that they were here, he found he really wasn't very sure what to do about them.

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Not totally expecting that. He doesn't pull back at all, but he wasn't quite expecting her to do that. In retrospect he's not sure why he wasn't, but for the moment, he looks levelly back at her until she finishes talking and for a couple of moments after, then closes his eyes for a few more. She's right, but then that's not really unexpected. He'd not been meaning to close off, really, it's just the default setting for everything at this point. Difficult to override.

'Yeah.' It's on the much quieter side - well, she's literally right in front of him anyway - and it's a few seconds later, but he looks at her again just afterward. 'Sorry. Reflex.'

She's glad he doesn't pull back. She might have started guessing herself if he had and really when Rose starts guessing herself with the Doctor, things end up a mess, more so than they started out. He's had a lot of years to develop the closing up default so she understands that he can't change it overnight. It's part of her on going project with him, not even so much for herself, but she thinks he should have someone he can trust, someone that he can let his defenses down with. Granted he's always going to have to maintain things to a degree because she's human but she hopes that one of these days he won't close up and pull away from her.

She shakes her head at his apology, fingertips ghosting lightly over the spot he was hit. "S'all right. Don't mind remindin' you every now and then."

She's the one watching him carefully now for signs that he's closing up and pulling away from her.

She's been doing a pretty good job with her project. Originally his reaction to someone trying to get him to stop closing up further would just be to do it even faster. So there's that, and then that the opening is happening more often on its own as well. Relatively slow going but she's managing quite well for changing a habit nearly a millennium in the making.

'That's good. That's probably something you'll need to continue not minding.'

He's not. For the moment. Every time he's done it during this conversation she's immediately been on him about it, and his learning curve isn't that terrible. There's not particularly a lot more opening happening right now, but definitely not any pulling back either.

She's very persistent and she worms her way in with smiles, hugs, soft touches and lots of silly conversation. She also expects a lot of him and expects that he'll live up to those expectations so he probably feels a bit badly when or if he doesn't.

"No worries there, Doctor. Not likely to change it anytime soon."

She knows her Doctor and the way he deals with these sorts of things. She also knows that he's harder to reach if she lets him retreat into himself. On the contrary, his learning curve is generally very good. At least as good as the rabbits and he doesn't require any actual bapping on the head. Usually.

"Come on, let's get some ice and go lay down in the room. Bit more comfortable than the kitchen. More private as well."

The other him might want tea or to wander about the flat. Might be better he didn't walk in on them . Not that they're doing anything wrong, just cozy.

She is very persistent. Amazingly so. He doesn't like disappointing people in general but obviously there is a 'particularly you' thing going on in this case.

Could she please tell Donna the bapping thing isn't necessary; not that Donna's been employing it really since their first meeting, but he's got a fairly good memory for it happening at all and he prefers when it doesn't. (Even if it does spectacularly get his attention.) The suggestion makes him look back over in the direction of the main room.

'Did you two already talk?' Not that he doesn't want to, or that it's a point he particularly wanted to make, but he's fully aware that he needed the conversation that just took place so the other probably does as well, and that it really wasn't that long after that she followed him in here.

It's a gift. Although really, she's probably more persistent with him than she is with most things. It's important with him. She can't afford to give up on him. She likes the 'particularly you' clause.

She'll work on it. Donna might not listen since she's...well...Donna. In fact, there very well could be retroactive bapping for this incident, not that Rose will tell her but it's Donna and she's got ways of finding out these things even if Rose doesn't tell her.

"Just a little on the roof." She bites her bottom lip. There's a slight stricken, guilty look on her face for a moment. She'd forgotten for just a moment that there was more than one Doctor here. "I--sorry. I should go talk to--I'll meet you our--the bedroom after?"

Yes that was an our just slipped out. It's how she thinks of the room now even if she's the one that occupies it 90% of the time.

If nothing else she'll almost definitely notice that somewhere between three and two of the three of them seem to be sporting lovely new temporary beauty marks and question them all until someone tells her what happens. I don't know which of them would do it first but her first reaction likely would be to find him and bap him for it, regardless of who told her.

He nods a little bit. He was really hoping that they'd either somehow gotten what needed saying taken care of or had made plans to talk later so that she wouldn't have to leave, but didn't really think either one of those was that likely. The question wasn't supposed to make her feel guilty at all though, which he probably ought to have considered beforehand. ''Course, yeah. Don't worry.' The 'our' would probably at just about any other time be commentable, but really right now doesn't seem particularly like a good moment for it. 'I'll meet you there.'

Good point. Rose is going to be hiding for a few days in any case. She's also going to look into make up with some good coverage. However, she's still fairly certain Donna will find out. Somehow. It's the power of Donna.

She very lightly kisses his bruised face and stands up. "I'll be back in a bit then."

[ooc: and Dove wants to just handwave the chit chat so s'up to you whether you want to pick up with them in the room or not from here.]

He would absolutely forget he had make-up on his face and wind up wiping or scratching it off by accident. It's much safer to just try and hide altogether.

He'll probably stand up with her, but stay in the kitchen for a little while to pick up the ice cubes he dropped on the floor and just sort of ruminate a bit before actually going back to the room.

[ooc: Yeah, I saw that. Iiii have nearly no idea what would happen but we can do that thing we tend to do where we try it and if it putters out we just drop it? idk how many things you have since you were going to tag into new stuff. /plurk stalker.]

After her pep talk with the other Doctor, Rose feeds the bunnies in their cages, brushes her teeth and washes her face in the bathroom then goes on into the bedroom, assuming the Doctor is waiting for her. She smiles at him when she steps inside, closing the door softly behind her.

"He's doin' all right."

She leans against the door, watching him for a moment.

[ooc: Plurk stalking is love and that works for me. Poly is dead right now with new posts and I always have time for more Rose. Demanding thing that she is.]

He's not very good at sitting still, particularly when even sort of waiting on something, and even more so when already in a state of agitation, so there's a handful of different things in progress. Granted, most of them were already in various states of progression, but he's bounced back and forth between them while she was gone. Lack of concentration in particular from all the activity and the headache it developed. He's sitting on the bed when she comes in, and looks up at her over his glasses from the thing in his lap.

'Good. That's good. Figured he would be, but...' At least, after a chat if he wasn't already. He's at a mild loss as to how to actually finish the sentence though, so he opts to start a new one instead. 'Are you?'

She moves away from the door, walking over to the bed to sit down next to him, one leg bent, her foot on the bed, the other on the floor. She reaches out to run her fingers through his hair. "I'm alright."

Then looks down at the bit of tinkering in his lap. "What you workin' on?"

He's cross-legged, with the thing and its associated bits and bats in, on, or around his lap. There's a bit of visible relaxing with the simple motion, as well as the confirmation that she's still okay. He'd asked her in the kitchen but it's still so close to events that things still feel in flux.

At the question, he glances down as well, then holds it up a little so she can see. 'Trying to build a quark infuser. It's relatively simple; use it for repairs. Used to need them on the TARDIS sometimes, but they're a bit universal, got the right person around to retrofit it.' He's quiet for a couple of moments, and then gestures to something on a table across the room. 'Proton stabiliser over there, and that,' another gesture, but it's in a drawer and he just now remembered, 'Well, you can't see it, but there's a little bit of a laser accelerator I brought home for work. Meant to clean it.' He looks back at her, and by way of explanation, 'Short attention span.'

Her gaze goes to each thing as he gestures toward it and nods. She smiles at him and it's one of those soft sort of apologetic but 'I get it' smiles. She doesn't say anything right away, instead scoots across the bed and behind him, legs on each side of him, arms wrapping around him, hands against his chest as she rests her cheek against his back. She figures he could stand to be wrapped up in her and she likes the noise of his dual hearts.

"What's it accelerate?"

He works out what she's doing relatively quickly, but doesn't mind. By the time she's all situated and settled and all around him, he's much warmer, and relaxing even more. There's a couple of deep breaths in and out to see what it's like to do that with his new Rose-cocoon. When she asks the question, he initially tries to turn and look at her over his shoulder; quickly realises that doesn't work. But she's got her head on his upper back, so she'll hear him regardless, it's just nicer to look at someone when you're talking to them.

He looks back down at the thing in his lap as he answers the question about the thing in the drawer. 'It reduces the time it takes to get the laser... lasing. Or you can use it to boost the strength of the laser itself, by placing one between the origin of the laser and where the laser is ultimately supposed to end, you can increase the strength or speed to a level it wouldn't have had arriving on its own without it.'

This time he does talk over his shoulder. 'Right now it's got a bit of dust and some neutronic buildup I'm supposed to be cleaning off so they can have their part back.' It'll be a while before they get their part back.

She hadn't actually thought out that it might be awkward to talk to her without seeing her; her thoughts had only gone as far as, wrapped in Rose ought to be comforting to him. She smiles at the deep breaths, sort of breathing with him when he does that. She likes the way his voice sounds, sort of vibrating through her when he speaks.

"Somethin' they need right away?"

Because if it's an emergency, she'll hold off on distracting him and actually help him. If it's an 'as you go' sort of timeline, she thinks this ranks in priority right now, even if they are just sort of snuggling.

He's quite okay with talking to people who are either not in the room, not listening in the first place, not looking at him, or even don't have faces to look at him with. Rose just tends to not normally fall into any of those categories. As it is, he does prefer the Rose-wrapping over face-to-face conversation.

'Nah. Well, they might disagree, but I don't, so it'll probably be in that drawer for a while. Until they forget I have it at all, if I'm lucky, although that seems unlikely.'

It's mostly in an I've-decided-you-shouldn't-have-this-so-I'm-keeping-it state for now. If they really did need it, he wouldn't have left it in the drawer. There's also him just feeling a bit selfish right now and not wanting to move anywhere for the time being.

She sort of gets that 'you-shouldn't-have-this-so-I'm-keeping-it' thing and for the most part if that's what the Doctor thinks, she agrees.

"Mmm just have to forget where you've put it for a while then when they ask where it is, you can't remember."

Also, she is entirely on board with him not moving anywhere for the time being. She's comfy here.

'The only problem with that being that I don't forget things.'

Which is a boldfaced lie, but said playfully. He has got a good memory but clearly it doesn't work that well. Which is honestly probably a good thing.

Also he just sort of wants to play with it by himself. Not all that big on sharing things.

"But they don't know that." And obviously he has no problem with lying. "And I wouldn't tell. Might need a laser accelerator when we leave here anyhow." She has no idea what they'd need it for, but they're good to have lying around, right?

Rose understands about not wanting to share but her possessiveness usually has more to do with her people than her things.

In his opinion nearly anything is good to have lying around. He is secretly just a very proficient pack-rat; although it might have been easier to hide this trait in the TARDIS, where there was quite a bit more room. As it stands he probably just has slowly been accumulating little things everywhere in the flat.

'Good point. Maybe I ought to just keep it indefinitely.'

He can be possessive over people as well, it just takes more energy. He's very possessive over her, and everyone who travels with him, except probably Adam. He still doesn't like Adam. Probably due to possessiveness almost as much as Adam being a twat in the end.

She's beginning to see that but she's okay with the pack-rat tendencies. She might even encourage them by providing him with spaces to put things: boxes, end tables, drawers and the like. It's not as if they're filling the space with a great deal of furniture.

"Depends on what they're goin' to do with it." She's not encouraging thievery for the sake of thievery but if he's got a reason, well might as well encourage it. She stretches a bit pressing a kiss to the very top of his shoulder, near his neck. It's the closest she can get to bare skin in her position.

Not liking Adam had nothing to do with Adam liking Rose at all either.

He can and will find ways to fill all of them up. And then not be able to find them unless he absolutely needs them later, at which point the mental filing system accurately kicks in.

'Well... As I understand it Tony Stark used to be a weapons manufacturer. Is that enough reason, you think?' There's also that you could feasibly make a very powerful laser which he considers to be almost always a bad thing anyway, nevermind that there are several different timelines and cultures being represented in the City, the majority of which shouldn't have access to such things. Which is a little flimsy by way of reason. He lifts a hand to where she's got her arms around him and follows the length of them a couple times before letting his arm lay across and sort of hold them in place.

Not in the least.

She'll start buying high wardrobes and hutches and that sort of thing with a billion little cubbies and drawers in them.

She purses her lips a bit at that though he can't see it. "Sounds like a fair bit of reasonin' to me. Somethin' like that could do a lot of damage in this place in the wrong hands."

She smiles when he lays his arm across hers and squeezes him in a bit of a reverse kind of hug then brings her legs up to wrap around him, her feet in his lap.

She likes the possessiveness and the jealousy. Even then it was nice.

''Zactly. I'm keeping it safe. And them, from using it wrong. I'm very nearly doing them a favour.'

He glances down at the feet in his lap for a moment, having gone back to running his hand along the far bit of her forearm just under it, and then decides to do something else. He sets what he did have in his lap - the infuser - down to the side and instead starts to knead at the sole of one of her feet. It's right there anyway. Why not?]

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